Friday 26th April 2024

China's money only goes so far - Kokoda shows why history binds PNG and Australia in a far deeper way

There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the gruelling Kokoda Track towards Isurava, high in PNG’s rugged Owen Stanley mountains.

The place where Anthony Albanese and James Marape chose to commemorate ANZAC Day was the scene of one of the toughest battles in the Pacific war, the Battle of Isurava. This is where raw Australian conscripts and militiamen fought back against an invading Japanese force in August 1942 until veteran reinforcements arrived. Their combined efforts inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese and, crucially, slowed their advance.

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We spoke to young people about sexual consent. They understand the concept, but don't always ask in the moment

In early 2022 the federal government mandated consent education in schools. This includes information about what consent is, and how to ensure consensual relationships.

Across Australia, four states (Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania) and the Australian Capital Territory have now passed affirmative consent laws. While the precise wording of the laws differs between jurisdictions, affirmative consent can be defined as the need for “each individual person participating in a sexual act to take steps to say or do something to check that the other person(s) involved are consenting to a sexual activity”.

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As campus protests escalate surrounding the Israel-Gaza war, Ontario's Bill 166 is not the answer

As university campuses in both Canada and the United States are witness to ongoing student protests against the Israel-Hamas war amid campus challenges negotiating free expression and protection from harm, some academics are expressing concern about an Ontario government bill the government says aims to ensure safety and support for post-secondary students.

Bill 166, the Strengthening Accountability and Student Supports Act, was first tabled at the end of February. It introduces requirements surrounding mental health and anti-racism policies at colleges and universities — and would give the provincial government powers over these. It would also grant the minister authority to issue directives about costs of attending college and university.

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The planetary orbit in Netflix's '3 Body Problem' is random and chaotic, but could it exist?

Note: The following article contains spoilers about the Netflix series “3 Body Problem.”

I first encountered the three-body problem 60 years ago, in a short story called “Placet is a Crazy Place” by American science fiction writer Frederic Brown.

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Trump's immunity arguments at Supreme Court highlight dangers - while prosecutors stress larger danger of removing legal accountability

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on April 25, 2024, in a case that will change the course of American history. That case is Trump v. United States, in which the justices have been asked to decide whether and to what extent former President Donald Trump – or any president – can be criminally prosecuted for actions taken while in office.

The case specifically relates to special counsel Jack Smith’s charges that Trump attempted to subvert the 2020 presidential election. But the court’s decision will also apply to larger questions about the limits of presidential power and the role of the legal system in constraining executive actions.

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We reconstructed landscapes that greeted the first humans in Australia around 65,000 years ago

Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – approximately 65,000 years ago – the first humans arrived in Sahul, a place previously devoid of any hominin species.

Read more: Fifty years ago, at Lake Mungo, the true scale of Aboriginal Australians' epic story was revealed

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What do we lose when our old suburbs disappear?

I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, double-storey brick homes with Greek columns that aspirational migrants built in the 1970s and half-crumbling, Federation-era mansions once occupied by people whose names still appear in history textbooks.

Parramatta’s population is predicted to almost double in the next 20 years. My street, like so many others, has recently been rezoned for high-density living. Many of these houses are being sold to developers.

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Does fighting inflation always lead to recession? What 60 years of NZ data can tell us

There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession.

New Zealand is not immune to this issue. Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr has said a recession is needed to tame inflation – described as a “hard landing”. Others have disagreed, arguing New Zealand could and should aim for a soft landing (a reduction of inflation with no recession).

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Trump trial reveals details about how the former president thinks about, and exploits, the media

The first week of testimony is winding down in former President Donald Trump’s trial in New York City on charges that he falsified business records to cover up hush money payments to an adult film star, in an effort to avoid reporting the payments as campaign-related spending.

In a discussion that quickly shifted to topics well outside the courtroom itself, The Conversation U.S. spoke with Tim Bakken, a former New York prosecutor and now a legal scholar teaching at West Point, and Karrin Vasby Anderson, a scholar of political communication at Colorado State University, about the week’s events.

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Why the potential for another Donald Trump presidency is making Iran very nervous

PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University

There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Israel-Palestinian conflict and China. But there’s one more country closely watching the race: Iran.

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